All language subtitles for 9th.Circuit.Cowboy.-.The.Long.Good.Fight.Of.Judge.Harry.Pregerson.2021.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX].eng

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- [Narrator] An attorney called
him "a thug for the Lord."

His daughter dubbed him
"the rescue machine."

To those who loved him, he was a hero.

A tough, tenacious,
cantankerous, lovable hero.

A proud Marine who took the heart both on

and off the bench the motto,
"Leave no one behind".

To his critics, he was
a bleeding heart liberal

on the notorious Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals,

a would-be social engineer,
a judicial activist

who ruled with his heart
instead of his head.

He was a judge for over 50 years.

When he died still on the
bench at 94, it was said,

"In the field of law and public
interest, there are stars,

there are superstars and then
there's Harry Pregerson."

(relaxed violin music)

- This morning, Harry's family and I laid

his body to rest at the
VA Cemetery in Westwood.

We said Kaddish for
his soul and we laughed

at the certainty with
which we knew that Harry

after surveying his new surroundings

would have said, "It's about time,

I have always wanted to
live on the Westside."

(audience laughs)

That was Harry.

Funny as hell.

He did not care about
convention or much else,

other than living in the
best tradition of the Hebrew

prophets who railed against
oppression and hypocrisy

and stupidity and anything
or anyone that subverted

the rights of the poor or the
powerless or the vulnerable.

- We all recognize this, right?

This is the hardest thing
I've ever had to do.

First of all, I want to thank you all

for coming today to honor my dad.

I loved him so much.

I have to tell you, he was the best father

in the entire world and
I know you loved him too.

On the night that he passed
away, I sat in his office.

At first glance when you walk in,

it looks like Hurricane
Katrina just blew through it.

There are papers everywhere.

There's books everywhere,
pictures, mementos.

You name it, it's all stuffed into this

very messy office and
you could learn a lot

from him just studying
what was on those shelves.

As I went through his desk,
I found hundreds of letters,

handwritten notes and cards.

There were lots and lots of pictures,

mostly pictures of my
beautiful mother, Bern.

There were pictures of
my brother Dean and I.

There were pictures of
the late Congressman

Jim Corman, who was very dear to him.

Pictures of guys he
served within the Marines

and finally pictures of
lots and lots of people

in this audience from the
Bell Shelter or the Courthouse

or any one of the hundreds
of charity events that

he was schlepping to almost
every night of the week.

If you really wanted to
understand what made my dad tick,

all you had to do was sit in that office.

- Robert Alton Harris was strapped

in a chair in the gas chamber.

The acid bath was filling beneath him

and then the telephone rang.

- [Newswoman] That's when Federal

Appeals Judge Harry Pregerson jumped in.

- Evidently Federal Courts have ruled

that San Diego County can
make welfare applicants

submit to unannounced
searches of their homes.

Bleeding heart judges
called San Diego's program

"shameful," an "attack on the poor."

One of them added "The government does not

search through the closets and medicine

cabinets of farmers receiving subsidies.

They do not dig through the
laundry baskets and garbage

pails of real estate developers
or radio broadcasters."

Of course not, because those
people aren't on welfare.

They receive corporate
subsidies, totally different.

The Federal Appeals Court
based in San Francisco has

refused to reinstate President
Trump's immigration order.

- [Newswoman] President Trump's travel ban

met its end at the Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals.

- [Protesters] The people united-

- [Newswoman] By this
afternoon, the President

was telling The Washington
Examiner he would

absolutely consider breaking
up the Ninth Circuit.

- You go to the Ninth
Circuit and it's a disgrace

and I'm gonna put in a major complaint

because you cannot win,
if you're us, a case

in the Ninth Circuit and
I think it's a disgrace.

- [Harry] I'm not gonna sign
any order that's gonna have

the effect of kicking out of
this country kids who were

born here and who have the
birthright as American citizens.

I'm just not gonna do it because
I think it's morally wrong.

(soft piano music)

My father was born in the Ukraine

in a village called Kusrilla.

He came here about 1904
and he landed in Boston.

Ended up working in Chicago
and then the War came

and he was drafted in the American Army

and was in the Saint-Mihiel
and Meuse-Argonne

campaigns and he was badly wounded.

My mother came here as the young girl.

She lived in Philadelphia and worked

in one of the sweatshops
for like $3 a week.

They met here in Los Angeles.

(upbeat trumpet music)

It was up real hustling, bustling place.

People moving up and down the street,

the Five & Dime and the
pool halls, delicatessens,

creameries, bakeries, all the
great smells, the markets.

You had poultry stores where

the live chickens would running around.

We lived on Sea View Avenue
for the first 12 years

and it was heavily Jewish
but not completely.

There were many Japanese families,

Mexican families, Slavs, Italians.

It was heavily Italian too.

In grammar school, junior
high school, high school,

there was always an emphasis
on respect for others,

respect for others' cultural
backgrounds, religious beliefs.

This was emphasized.

In my high school, we had
52 different ethnic groups

but everybody got along and
that was very important.

- [Interviewer] Did you
experience any anti-Semitism?

- [Harry] These kids, I
think they were Mexican,

they asked me "Well, like what are you?"

So I said "I'm a boy."

"No, no, no, we want to know
whether you're a Jew or not."

I said "Yeah" and then they

wanted to know why I killed Christ.

Then I worked for The
Broadway in Pasadena.

That was a good job because
that paid like $5 a day.

I was there for a few days

and they found out I was
Jewish and they fired me.

- [Interviewer] That was
really your first experience?

- [Harry] That was the real
first experience, yeah.

- [Interviewer] When did you first

begin to think about being a lawyer?

- [Harry] Well, I think it
all came from my father.

He used to go and listen
to Darrow in Chicago.

He had Darrow's debates
on capital punishment

and from earliest childhood,

I knew I was gonna go to law school.

(upbeat carnival music)

I used to go to the Ocean Park Pier.

There were a lot of fishermen on the wharf

and this guy's caught a big one

and it's on the ground, so it's flopping.

I just ran over and threw
it back in the ocean.

Well the guy was mad as hell,
it was probably his supper.

So the guy starts to run after me.

But I just couldn't leave that boy alone.

He was a humanitarian, but
I'll never forget that.

- All of us were the
center of Harry's universe.

He made sure that I felt like
a girl who could do anything,

who was tough, who had the fortitude

to really take care of
myself, to weather any storm.

A turning point came when I was in

the seventh grade and my mom announced

that she was going back to
school to study microbiology.

Bern told Harry that he needed to step up

to the plate and assume
some responsibilities

of parenting and because
my dad was totally

helpless in the kitchen,
we went out every night.

Over dinner, he would tell me

what a mediocre student he was.

By far and away, the brightest

in the class were always the girls.

He'd say, "And what
happened to those girls?"

Well, those girls got
married out of high school,

they put their husbands through college

put 'em through graduate school,

raised the kids and then what happened?

Sometimes the husband would die.

Sometimes,

the husband would get bored

and the marriage would end in divorce

and it was too late for
the woman at that point

in her life to start
over and have a career.

It bothered him so much

that these women never had an opportunity

to really live up to their potential

and then he'd tell me, "That's why Katie,

you need to get a good education.

You need to be your own boss.

You need to make your own money.

You need to determine
your own destiny, even if

you're lucky enough to marry
the man of your dreams."

- What was it like to grow up with Harry?

Just imagine you're a barely
literate young teenager.

You are happily reading "The
Hardy Boys" mystery series,

maybe watching a little "Sea Hunt" on TV.

Harry strides up and hands you a poem.

"Read it, it's called 'Invictus.'"

(audience laughs)

"But why?"

"It builds character."

"Out of the night that covers me,

black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be
for my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance,

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance,

my head is bloody but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

looms but the horror of the shade

and yet the menace of the years

finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

how charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul."

When Harry was working
his way through UCLA

washing dishes at
fraternities and sororities,

he decided that he was gonna
run for Student Body President.

Those were different times.

Anti-Semitism was not in the shadows.

There were restrictive
covenants and deeds.

Some schools had quotas,

private clubs had Jews
not allowed policies,

anti-Semitic slogans
and jokes were common.

No one who was Jewish had ever been

elected Student Body President of UCLA.

The other side smeared Harry, his heritage

and just said terrible,
terrible things about him.

Harry in despair went
to see the campus Rabbi.

"What should I do, Rabbi?" he asked.

The Rabbi said one word,
a word that carried

Harry through the rest
of his life, "Fight."

Harry the dishwasher
won by a good landslide.

(anxious trumpet music)

(explosions booming)

It was 1944, the survival
of America was at stake.

Harry enlisted in the
Marine Corps and soon

found himself in Officer's
Training in Quantico, Virginia.

Harry and three of his Marine

buddies are sent to the Pacific.

One is killed, one loses
an eye and one a leg.

For Harry, it meant Okinawa.

More than 200,000 perished
in the 82-day struggle,

twice the number of
Japanese lost at Hiroshima

and more American blood than
had been shed at Gettysburg.

(anxious violin, trumpet music)

It's May 3rd, 1945.

Harry is wounded both ways by bullets

from a machine gun shooting
Dum Dum exploding rounds.

He's able to like flat
in a small depression

of dirt while ordinance
flies in both directions.

He slows the bleeding by using

his belt and clothing as tourniquets.

Through that long night alone, he hears

"Marine, tonight you die.

Marine, tonight you die."

At dawn, two guys run
through hell to get him.

They dropped him several times
sliding down embankments,

trying to escape, trying to stay alive

and this is where we remember that Harry

is from East LA and proud of it.

His friends were working class Latinos,

Jews, Asians, Italians,
Irish, you name it.

The guys that saved his life
were the Martinez cousins.

He didn't know them, but he knew them.

They were just like his buddies
from the old neighborhood.

The greatest guys in the world.

(anxious violin tones)

(somber trumpet music)

Harry had spent about a year

at the Naval Hospital in San Diego.

His weight went up from
110 to a healthy 175.

He had a limp and he had a cane.

One day, he was playing pool
with one of his buddies.

Harry said "Hey, do you know
any girls I could meet?"

His friend said "Well you
know, I'm going on a date

with this girl and I'll ask
if she has any friends."

Well, this car drives
up and Bern is sitting

in the front seat with
Harry's friend who's driving.

Harry opens the door, looks at Bern,

looks at his date in the back seat

and he sits in the front seat.

(audience laughs)

Is anyone surprised?

And from that day forward,

he knew he was going to marry her.

- When I first met Harry,
he was on crutches.

He was this handsome Marine

and what could be more
romantic than a handsome

Marine on crutches to an 18 year old girl?

It was after about five or six times

that I had gone out with Harry,

I said "What do you want
to do with your life?"

And he said without a minute's hesitation,

"Oh, I want to help people."

And he said, "So I'm
gonna go to law school

and acquire the tools that
I'll need to do that."

My background was living in Boyle Heights

during the Depression,
growing up very poor.

My father never had a permanent job.

In fact, most of the time
he didn't have a job at all.

He was a mechanic and they
were not hiring mechanics

and so there were six
children and sometimes

it was lean pickings when it came to food

and I felt poor

and so when I went to UCLA
the semester I met Harry,

I couldn't believe how
beautiful those homes

were around UCLA and I thought to myself

you know, I'd really like one of those.

So when Harry said he
wanted to help people

and I'm thinking about
those beautiful houses,

it didn't seem to me, as
naive as I was, that maybe

helping people was not such
a money-making proposition.

That maybe those houses would be out

of range with Harry
working on helping people.

But I thought it was such an unusual thing

for him to say and when I
dated him more and more,

I realized that I would
probably never meet

anybody as unique as
this man and so that's

when I decided that maybe
this was the guy for me.

(up tempo Jewish style wedding music)

Harry took any case that
came through the door

and I mean any case, he
did wills for maybe $10.

Never thought about billable hours,

just whatever they could pay.

I remember Harry coming
home with a package

of chicken legs or we got a free tire.

It never occurred to him to limit himself

to people of position, people of influence

and that's when he first
embarked on the idea of

trying to find a way for the
little guy to be represented.

- In the late 50s, I got to hanging around

with what was then the neighborhood gang.

My mother's optometrist
was Dr. Edward Lamar

and every afternoon
from about 2:00 to 4:00,

he'd put an out to lunch sign

and him and his receptionist would

basically have a lovemaking
session in the afternoons

with their lunch and
so we knew that the car

wasn't going anywhere
for at least two hours.

So we actually went joyriding twice

before the third time, we got caught.

Detectives came that evening to the house

and told my dad that they
knew that I was in the car

and after my dad got through straightening

me out with his belt,
we had to go to court

and that's when I met
Harry and he was hard.

I never met somebody that
could scare me like he did.

I still remember one thing he said

that just kind of stuck with
me and that was that if that's

the kind of life I wanted to
lead, then I wasn't a very

good person and that they
should throw the book at me.

But if I wanted to change,

then the change had to be with me.

It couldn't be anybody else

and I couldn't blame anybody else

and my father made the
comment that he was a Marine

and he was a combat Marine
and a decorated Marine

and that Marines didn't
put up with any nonsense.

So that put the idea in my head that maybe

these Marines were a pretty
tough outfit to belong to.

I wanted to be a Marine if
they could make you that tough.

- It was when Jim Corman, the Congressman

who was very close to
Harry said to him one day,

he said, "You know,
you'd make a fine judge."

And he said "I'm going to try

to see whether that's possible."

Pat Brown, who was Governor Brown

was impressed with my husband.

He liked what Harry was doing

and so it just happened
there was an opening.

Harry first became a
Municipal Court Judge.

One year later, he was appointed

to be a Superior Court Judge.

He was appointed to the District Court

by President Lyndon Johnson.

(gunfire clacking)

(explosion booms)

Harry was torn when it came to Vietnam.

He felt that everybody should serve

but he understood why
others didn't feel that way.

- The War was just heating up
when I got out of high school

and you could go into college,
you could get a deferment

and avoid going in the service at all

and so I took that deferment
and I went to college,

not necessarily because
I wanted to go to college

but because I could get a deferment.

A couple of years down the
line when the War began getting

worse, I decided I had to
take personal responsibility

for my position on the War
and that I had sort of white

privilege going to school
when other kids couldn't.

So I sent in my 2-S
and they made me a 1-A.

They called me for a physical

and I refused to take the
physical and then I was indicted.

When they said "The People
of the United States

of America versus Robert Paul Zaugh,"

I felt this huge wave of adrenal fear

jolt me and pass through my body

and once it did, I was not nervous.

The Judge didn't have to
let you defend yourself.

They could just keep it to

"Did you refuse induction or did you not?"

It's a yes or no answer

and that could be the end of your case.

Even though the prosecutor
objected to my presentation,

Pregerson said, "I want to hear
what Mr. Zaugh has to say."

So I spoke for, I don't know, 20 minutes.

He acquitted me of refusing induction

and he convicted me of
refusing to take a physical.

He sentenced me to work
in the national interest.

I told them that I was
working at Peace Press,

that we printed for Angela
Davis, Daniel Ellsberg,

the Communist Party, the
Black Panthers, et cetera

and that that was the
national interest and that's

what I was going to do and
they never challenged that.

I thought perhaps it was my so-called

brilliant defense that
had kept me out of prison.

But what Pregerson said was
that he visits everybody

he sends to prison and
that he went up to Lompoc

to visit a bank robber and he looked on

the prison manifest and he
saw the name of Mike Swartz.

He thought Schwartz was picking
corn in Safford, Arizona,

the minimum security prison

that most resisters were sent to.

It wasn't my argument that got me off.

It was one, he didn't like the conditions

in that prison and two,
he realized how serious

the draft resisters were
about what they were doing

and he decided personally he was not gonna

send any more draft resisters to prison

and lo and behold, I was the next case.

(relaxed guitar music)

- They came home, they had to find a job.

Many of them had been gone
for a number of years.

They hadn't had training
to move into the mainstream

and so many of them
wound up on the streets.

They were homeless and they were needing

help and nobody was giving them help.

So Harry just went crazy over that idea

that you have people
serving, putting their life

on the line, as he saw all these men do,

Marines

and Navy and Army guys

and gals and he said, "How
can you treat them so poorly?"

- In Los Angeles alone, there
were about 24,000 homeless

veterans and he really took
it to heart that these guys

were out on the street and
they and they couldn't get help

and tears came to his eyes,

just showing that he cared
deeply about everyone,

about every veteran who wasn't
being helped in the world.

Harry and I really
connected early on in that.

He found out that I was a Marine.

We are taught to protect those around us.

We become a unit and we
watch each other's back,

which in combat is absolutely essential.

So he identified a building, he found

the people who would give the
down payment on the building.

He really put together

the building blocks of
what became US Vets.

Our workers go out into the streets,

go under the bridges, by the freeways

and when they see an
encampment of homeless people,

they'll say, "Are any of you veterans?"

- Are you a veteran?

You got any vets out here?

And Army, Navy, Marines?
- Army.

- Are you a veteran by any chance?

Are you a United States veteran?

- Once be bring them in, we
assess them, try to determine

what are those things that
led them to homelessness?

- We got guys that just got out

of the military last year, you know?

We have from World War II all the way up.

(plane humming)

The only family they have is
right here, this community.

- You see, it started 35 years ago.

Harry was watching
television and on the news,

the Salvation Army was managing

a homeless shelter, a cold winter shelter.

It was a very bleak and cold winter

and many of the homeless
were dying on the streets.

The city announced that the shelter would

be closed and that the
Salvation Army would cease

to manage it because there
were no more funds left.

They asked my father, "What are
these homeless going to do?"

And he says, "They're gonna probably

have to go back to
sleeping on the streets."

Well, Harry saw that
interview on television

and just within about
an hour after my father

got back to his office, he
got a phone call from Harry

and you know that when you
get a phone call from Harry,

something's about to happen,
something's going to be done

and it's probably gonna
challenge you to do

a lot more than you ever
thought you were gonna do.

The Judge drove him down to Bell,

government land that wasn't being used.

He said, "What could you do with this?"

500 men and women from
that day forward were

housed at this complex
because Harry made it happen.

(relaxed guitar music)

- [Harry] If you want to
meet wonderful people,

kind people, sharing
people, decent people,

you go to a homeless shelter
and you sit down with them.

They'll share whatever they
have with the next person.

They're concerned about others' problems.

There's so much talent there.

We've had lawyers who were homeless.

We've had bankers who were homeless.

We've had NBA basketball players.

We've had a lot of folks that

are just struggling to survive every day.

They come to our place
and we have a total array

of programs to help 'em
get back on their feet.

- When the Pregerson family

asked me to share a few reflections,

I wanted to speak from my
heart and think of what's

the truest thing I can say
to honor this magnificent man

and it occurred to me
it is somewhat ironic

that as a Catholic and
Christian, the person

who most has reminded me
of Jesus on my journey

was a man of Jewish persuasion named Harry

and I had mentioned this to my wife,

my most honest critic, Denise.

She said "No, you're not gonna say that.

First of all, Jesus was a Jew.

You're gonna sound like an ignorant

Catholic boy who doesn't know his history.

You're not gonna say that."

It kinda reminded me of those
moments when you've been

at those events that honor
Harry and as was mentioned,

he has a tendency to kinda go on and on

with his enthusiasm and so finally Bern

pops up and says "Harry, get down,

you're done, get off the stage."

God bless our wives.

Harry recognized that as devastating

as material poverty can be,

it is the disconnection
from a community of care

that most depresses the plights
of our homeless neighbors.

I am convinced that this is
why the individual attention

he devoted to the poor and
powerless surpassed that

which he directed to the
powerful and the elite.

His message to the homeless
was you deserve more

and I believe in you, don't
give up on your dreams.

The message he conveyed
to the powerful was

you need to do more or I won't
believe in you because you'll

be giving up on the dream of
what we must be as a community.

- In 1979, Harry was
nominated to the Ninth Circuit

Court of Appeals by
President Jimmy Carter.

He went before the Senate

Judiciary Committee for confirmation.

Harry was asked by one of the Senators

and pushed by one of the Senators,

"What would you do, Judge,

if you had a case in
which you had to decide

according to the law or your conscience?"

And Harry really said afterwards to me

and others that that made
him very uncomfortable

to try to answer a question like that

and he finally, because
they pressed him, he finally

said "My conscience is the
product of the 10 Commandments,

the Bill of Rights, the Boy Scout Oath

and the Marine Corps Hymn.

If I had to follow my
conscience or the law,

I would follow my conscience."

Harry could not lie.

Harry had no guile.

He just was what he was.

People would take him for what he was

and I think everybody recognized
that this was a man of

great

honor,

of great morality, of integrity.

(soft piano, violin music)

- I was asked to speak on behalf

of HP's law clerks past and present.

There are over 150 of us

over his 45 years on the Federal bench.

He has sworn most of us

into the Bar and into other positions.

Since he's been a Circuit
Judge, he has taken

the liberty of embellishing
the State Bar Oath.

He adds the promise, which
he makes us all repeat,

"I will never file an oversized brief."

(audience laughs)

He bragged about other people's kids

and shared pictures as
if they were his own.

He took the cane, an
item that some might view

as a symbol of weakness and
made it powerful and fun.

He used to do tricks with his cane.

HP regularly hired female
law clerks from the get-go,

long before many of his colleagues

would even consider such
a hire and if you got

pregnant while you were
working for him, no problem.

Just bring the crib in.

He had it all set up as a nursery.

He was always on the phone,

moving and shaking, wheeling and dealing.

It was so frustrating if
you were trying to keep him

on a deadline or help him get
an opinion out but he taught

us how to get amazing things
done by personal contact.

When he saw a wrong that
needed to be righted,

he gathered the law clerks

and he gave us our marching orders.

Find the law and build
to the right decision.

He said the law is like
going to Builder's Emporium,

figure out what you want to build

and then use the law
as a tool to build it.

And he had amazing legal vision.

His dissent in Sullivan
versus United States in 1985

lamented the failure of the
Court and our government

to recognize the importance of
a party's same-sex marriage.

In 1998 in US versus Lipman,

long before the DACA controversy,

he authored a little-known opinion that

gave legal recognition to
real life on the street.

That it is no surprise that children

brought to this country
illegally by their parents

become as American as the rest of us.

- He was obviously incredibly impactful

as a jurist and I think
for two different reasons.

One, he personified idealism.

The law was there to protect people.

It was infused with values,
equality and fairness

but he also was the consummate pragmatist.

He measured whether something was just

based on its actual effect
on real people's lives.

(relaxed piano music)

- In the mid-80s, it came
to light that the city

of Los Angeles had been
inadequately treating its sewage

and was essentially
dumping everything that

was flushed down a toilet
into Santa Monica Bay.

- The Hyperion Treatment
Plant was not coming close

to meeting the requirements
under the Clean Water Act.

We had a dead zone in the
middle of Santa Monica Bay.

We had sewage spills closing the beaches

even in the height of
summer and people were

just sick and tired of
the poor water quality.

It was very much under the radar.

Then Assemblyman Tom Hayden held hearings.

Then all of a sudden, the sorry state

of sewage became front page news.

Judge Pregerson had
been the District Judge

who had been presiding
over the enforcement case.

It then got put on hold for
many, many years and by the time

it reopened, he was an Appellate
Court Judge but he kept

on the case because he
already had the experience.

He required all of us to go on a tour

of the Hyperion Treatment
Plant and he made sure

that everybody got up close and personal

to what's known as the headworks,

where there are bar screens that screen

out the crazy large items
and things that people dump

into sewers down manholes
and flush down the toilets.

It's the most odorful area.

- [Mark] We ended up
meeting once a quarter.

Judge Harry Pregerson presided
to run those meetings.

- Stuck in a room having
to go through everything,

we started to develop
some honest relationships.

Being able to ask questions, you know,

"Would you let your daughter go swim

in the beach out near the plant?"

And the answer was no.

- He was so down earth and so folksy

and he just had this incredible way

of making everybody in
that room feel at ease

and also feel that their
voice was important.

We I think realized,
somewhat to our horror,

that we had approached talking about

the men and women of the
Public Works Department

as if the folks who went
to work at the sewage

treatment plant went there
every morning to manufacturer

sewage for the joy of
dumping it in the ocean

as opposed to it being
hardworking men and women

who were dealing with
a river of human waste

coming at them 24 hours a
day that they hadn't been

given the resources they
needed to deal with adequately.

(soft piano, trumpet music)

I think Judge Pregerson
and his very humanity

in forcing us to come together
as people to figure out

what could be done as
opposed to fighting in the

traditional sense really brought
the best out of all of us.

- We hear the term activist judge.

That doesn't really encompass

the activist judge that
Harry Pregerson was.

He taught us it's not
just what you do in law

with your hands in the
opinions that you write

but it's what you do with your
feet outside the courtroom.

When a freeway going through
South Los Angeles was going

to uproot low income families,
he stopped it in its tracks.

The first time in the history
perhaps of this nation

that a judge stopped an
infrastructure project

like that out of justice, to
make sure that something that

was supposed to serve all of
us did not leave anyone behind.

- The Century Freeway was planned

deliberately to go right
through the urban area

and in doing so, it would destroy

approximately 8,000 housing units.

We were very young, still very green

and trying to figure out what

public interest law could be about.

Judge Pregerson understood
the need to act quickly

and Judge Pregerson kept
going back to Caltrans

and saying "You need to do a better job

of addressing the problems of blight."

He continued the injunction
in effect for seven years.

Judge Pregerson clearly
understood that a very robust

mitigation plan was going
to be the optimum solution.

He delivered that message
and that was critical

to getting both the Federal and the State

government to agree to a plan that was

going to cost hundreds
of millions of dollars.

The settlement provided that
roughly half the cost of the

freeway was going to be put
into the mitigation measures.

Pregerson was more
responsible than anybody

for establishing the
Apprenticeship Program.

You should have certain numbers of women,

you should have certain
numbers of the minority.

You should try to have as many people

from the impacted area as possible.

That proved to be extremely difficult

because a lot of people
that you would want

to get those jobs didn't have the skills.

Pregerson said "Well, let's
have an Apprenticeship Program

where we teach these people
the skills from the beginning,

how to hit a hammer into a nail,

then go up from there
and drive the bulldozer."

(bulldozer rumbles)

He had a great concern for minorities.

Maybe it was his Jewish background,

that he felt he was a minority religiously

and that the Jewish community was one

of many minority groups as he grew up

and so he felt concerned
for other minority groups.

I'm not sure where he got that.

(relaxed trumpet music)

- This is a letter from a Congressman,

Chuck Holifield of the
19th District in California

and he writes to my husband
on September 11th, 1945,

"Dear Harry, I rejoice with you

in the restoration of your Commission.

The most important thing
in this whole affair

is that you've proven your ability

to overcome what seemed to
be a very great tragedy."

Oh, where to begin?

There's no question that my
husband suffered from PTSD.

I've known it, Harry has known
it and you could say well,

he certainly suffered in the battlefield.

He had these severe wounds in Okinawa

but by far the greatest
suffering that my husband had

was when he was in Quantico, Virginia

in the Officer's Training Facility

to become a Second Lieutenant
in the Marine Corps.

When Harry and his friend
Mike graduated from the ROTC

program at UCLA, they were
then sent to Quantico.

They were absolutely shocked

by the outrageous racism,

bigotry,

anti-Semitism that would permeate

every aspect of their military life there.

Right after they had taken an exam,

they were called into
the office of an officer

who they considered not very
friendly towards Jews and told

that they had been found
to have cheated on the exam

and of course they denied it
and then the officer said,

"Well then now that you've denied it,

you're not only a cheat but you're liars."

Just before graduation,
they were called in

and told they were going to
be dishonorably discharged.

That was probably the greatest
pain that Harry's ever known.

The day that they received
their dishonorable discharges,

Harry decided that he would enlist

the very next day in the
Marine Corps as a Private.

He was going into that War.

And then a strange thing happened.

Evidently there were enough people

in high places who said
this is terrible travesty,

what was done to these two boys.

Harry was told

that he would get back his commission

and it would be a field commission.

But what happened was he was severely

wounded with these badly mangled legs.

The doctor came to see
him and he said, "Son,

one of the requirements is
you're going to have to walk.

You're gonna have to walk."

And so

Harry got up

and he walked.

He walked about 10 steps

and the doctor had a
wheelchair waiting for him and

he got his commission back

and so, this wound that Harry suffered

was rectified and yet it wasn't.

He never wanted to talk about this.

He didn't tell our children
for years and years

because he felt it was a
stain on his character.

One of the things that Harry learned

from this experience was that
a little person like Harry

who was barely out of his
teens when this event happened,

a little person who had no
power and had no network,

no resource, no person who could help him

was totally at the mercy
of whatever powers might be

and so I think Harry learned

that one of the things he
needed to do was to get power,

to have some voice and
then to start networking.

I'll never forget his last words.

"I'm so sorry.

I regret so much that I can
no longer help anybody."

- I'm gonna bring it home.

When I was eight years
old, my grandfather gave me

a stone with the inscription
"Never, never, ever quit."

Being eight, I didn't have
anything yet to quit from.

(audience laughs)

When I was 10 years old,
he bought me the book

"How to Win Friends and Influence People."

Win friends?

Influence people?

I was just focused on trying
to be like Michael Jordan.

As I got older, my grandpa
continued to buy me books.

Autobiographies of Abraham Lincoln,

speeches of Winston Churchill

and of course, Strunk's
"Elements of Style."

One summer, we went through
this book cover to cover.

He would call me each Sunday

and say without any introduction,

"Turn to page 57."

(audience laughs)

During one weekend session
that I will never forget

because it was a particularly
beautiful summer day,

I asked him if we could
skip that day's session.

Grandpa, I said, "It's a beautiful day.

I want to go outside and have
fun with the other kids."

He said "Brad, let me tell you something.

Fun is bullshit."

(audience laughs)

And I'll never forget
that but it was ironic

coming from someone who
loved to make people laugh

and even at 12 years old, I
knew what he really meant.

Don't waste time, work every day

towards bettering yourself
and strive to be better.

In his later years, I went with him

to many dinners and charity
events and at those events,

he would be seated at a
table and a stranger would

inevitably approach him
and introduce themselves.

He would slowly extend his hand.

They would shake and suddenly the stranger

was confronted with a Kung Fu
grip they could not escape.

The crippling grip continued
as pleasantries were exchanged

while the stranger pretended
everything was normal.

The handshake would continue an unusually

long period of time where this stranger

would finally begin to smile or laugh,

I'm sure thinking this crazy old judge

is squeezing the crap out
of my hand and won't let go.

Eventually grandpa would release his grip

and a conversation or rather
a history lesson would ensue.

"Where do you live? Near
downtown, near Pershing Square?

Do you know about General Pershing?"

(audience laughs)

Soon contact information was requested

and then exchanged and then
the stranger unknowingly

had enlisted as a member
of grandpa's army.

The truth is that all the
good deeds he was able

to accomplish were not the
result of his efforts alone.

No, there was an army of people who stood

and fought with him
who began as strangers,

who were brought in with a Kung Fu grip

and soon became lifelong friends.

But grandpa wasn't afraid
to take bold action,

inspiring others to join him and they did

because they knew he was
fighting the good fight.

He was a good man and he
would never, never, ever quit.

Thank you.

(audience applauds)

(somber trumpet music)

- [Narrator] In his last days,
Harry knew his work was done.

That it was time for others
to carry on his legacy.

His message was we have to
make this world a better place.

We have to leave it in better
shape than when we entered it.

"God puts us here to take care
of each other," he once said.

And I really believe that.

(soft piano music)

(audience applauding)

- I grew up in East LA.

It was a wonderful place.

In my high school,

the students' parents came from

over 50 countries

around the world.

You know, we all got along.

We were like brothers and sisters.

People worked together,
they respected each other.

I've looked at people
that way, that they're all

important.

That they all have so
much goodness within them.

It's been a great journey
for me, it's not finished.

(audience applauds)

I guess that means I should sit down.

(audience laughs)

But I just want to say this.

As a country,

we have a great future.

We have great strength,
we have great resources.

But we need to come together.

We need to embrace each
other as brothers and sisters

and we need

to devote so much of our resources

to educating our children and
the parents of our children.

Every child that is here
today, every child born here

and every child who is brought here

is a precious asset

and the wealth of our country
is in the minds of our people.

The other thing I want to say, and I'll

probably get half the people
in this room mad at me but

I feel very good about the future

of our country, and you know why?

Because the women are
gonna take over and run it.

(audience applauds)

- Good ending.

(relaxed trumpet music)